“Your skin will harden, your bangs will burn, your minds will be trapped in a psychological prison of broken mirrors and strange echoes”

Sound like fun? Come on in! The duck pond’s fine!

Narrated by Dr Candlestank, a mad scientist who gave me Ghostbusters Jillian Holtzmann vibes for some reason … this is the story of the Porch sisters.

The Porch sisters aren’t like the rest of their family, not the least because their names don’t include Lavinia. It might also have something to do with their interests.

Eugenia likes rocks and explosions. Dee-Dee is mechanically minded. Gertrude is an entomologist in the making who has questions, like “what makes the purple feathers on pigeons sparkle and what makes soap bubbles have rainbows in them and where does a newt lay eggs and do cat whiskers feel anything and are guinea pigs related to pigs and how is a chilli pepper hot and things like that.”

Good questions, the answers of which are not going to be found at Mrs Wintermacher’s School of Etiquette for Girls. If only there was a school that catered to the strange and unusual…

Meet Millicent Quibb. Strange. Unusual. Mad scientist.

“Look - I know I'm 'scary' and my house is 'a hoard' and there are 'tarantulas everywhere'. I'm not 'good with children' and I don't ‘have social skills'. I was 'kicked out of etiquette school when I was young' and now I'm 'a pariah'.”

Did I mention she runs a school? The Porch sisters are in need of a school and Millicent is in need of, well…

"So you want us, a group of children with no skills at all, to help you protect the town against a hidden organisation of evil mad scientists?"
"Yes. You're finally getting it."

We’re doomed! Or are we?

I’m very aware of the pushback against children’s books written by celebrities and I usually bypass them. This one grabbed my attention, though. Adult me enjoyed it but not quite as much as kid me would have, probably in part because I kept thinking of all of the kid’s books on my TBR pile that aren’t written by celebrities.

Putting that aside for a moment, this madcap adventure (with footnotes) felt similar to my first read of Roald Dahl books when I was a kid, over the top bonkers fun. Alfredo Cáceres’ illustrations helped amplify the quirky.

I loved seeing outcasts being true to themselves, refusing to be squished into boxes that conform to society’s expectations.

“We are about to embark on a long, dangerous mission for which none of us is qualified.”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children’s Books for the opportunity to read this book.

This is irreverent and fun. I absolutely adored the story telling here - lots of this made me PROPER laugh out loud. I loved the characters too, and I think kids will find one of them that they totally resonate with!

EXCERPT: Heed my tale, I tell no fib,
Beware the home of Millicent Quibb.
She'll twist your skull until it's loose,
Then pickle your brain in lemon juice.
Her hair is wild, her clothes are smelly,
All coated with fish and rotted jelly.
You needn't fear the witch's curse.
Mad scientists like her are much, much worse.
If you hope to grow up past eleven,
Or have a birthday when you're seven,
Or even make it past the crib,
Beware the home of Millicent Quibb!

ABOUT 'THE MILLICENT QUIBB SCHOOL OF ETIQUETTE FOR YOUNG LADIES OF MAD SCIENCE': A madcap new adventure about three sisters, a ravenous worm, and a mysterious mad scientist.

Gertrude, Eugenia, and Dee-Dee Porch do not belong. They don’t belong in the snooty town of Antiquarium, where the only dog allowed is the bichon frise. They don’t belong with their adoptive family, where all their cousins are named Lavinia. And after getting kicked out of the last etiquette school that would take them, the girls expect to be sent away for good… until they receive a mysterious invitation.

Suddenly the girls are under the tutelage of the infamous Millicent Quibb – a mad scientist with worms in her hair and oysters in her bathtub. Dangerous? Yes! More fun than they’ve ever had? Absolutely! But when the sisters are asked to save their town from an evil cabal of mad scientists, they must learn to embrace what has always made them stand out – before it’s too late!

MY THOUGHTS: This book is touted as Perfect for fans of Roald Dahl and Lemony Snicket but sorry, in my honest opinion, it's nowhere near the same class. I know I am not the intended market, BUT I love Roald Dahl and still read him regularly, and adore Lemony Snicket, whom I need to read more of.

Parts of the book I really enjoyed, particularly the poem above. Other parts left me scratching my head or shaking it. The author veers off into (I honestly don't know where) on numerous occasions, or threads just peter out . . .

There is a plot which was a lot of fun, but all the extraneous nonsense sort of spoils it. It felt like the author was trying too hard, and it showed.

I did laugh at this: Adults don't know that much. It's comforting to think that they do, and they certainly act like they do, but no one really knows what to do when it really comes down to it . . .

⭐⭐.5

#TheMillicentQuibbSchoolofEtiquetteforYoungLadiesofMadScience #NetGalley

MEET THE AUTHOR: Kate McKinnon is a globetrotting writer, metalsmith and photographer, and she has written seven books on jewelry making and metalsmithing, with her latest being the worldwide, open-source Contemporary Geometric Beadwork, Volumes I and II. This groundbreaking work provided a new way of looking at sewn beadwork, focusing on the basics of architecture, tension and geometry to create dimensional forms.

Kate is based in her home town of Tucson, Arizona, but travels all over the world, writing her life.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins UK Children's Books via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

A well written , funny and entertaining story of three sisters who feel out of place in their etiquette school, their town and their adoptive family. After getting expelled from school they expect to be sent away for good but instead they receive and invitation to a new school and finally they might have found somewhere they belong.

My ten year old enjoyed this , she liked the three sisters and enjoyed the magical and adventure elements and thought this was a quick and funny read . She said it’s probably suitable for age 7+ and an easy to read , exciting and you want to read it quickly to find out what happens.
4 stars from her.

Thank you so much Harper Collins Children’s Books and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

The Porch Sisters are three unusual sisters, they don’t fit into their etiquette school, after they get expelled for an experiment gone wrong they find a mysterious letter. The mad scientist Millicent Quibb has been watching them and needs their help, something bad is afoot.

This was a very fun book, I loved reading it, you get sunk into it so quickly. I loved learning about this whole mad world that had been created. From the oddball characters, to the place itself with its etiquette rules, it’s the hidden world underneath from the towns mad science past. It was a very quirky and fun read, following these girls mysterious adventures.

You have so much mystery to solve within the book, you never fully know what’s happening as there are so many mysterious curve balls. You’ll certainly be rooting for the three protagonist girls, seeing them start to develop their skills, grow within themselves, gaining confidence and learning so much from Ms. Quibbs. You’ll be so intrigued by the creatures within the story, there are certainly some unique and strange invented animals. The book will have you laughing at all the funny parts, there a lot within the story.

I loved the addition of the illustrations, the diagrams, the information all provided with illustrated sections. It gives you such a fun way to see what things look like and how things work within this world. The footnotes were just so funny throughout, they were there not just to further explain but to make readers laugh. I really enjoyed reading this story, I found it was very similar in style to others books out there such as The Unfortunate Events Series, The Magic Misfits series and others like it. I highly recommend this book, you’ll have lots to enjoy, solve and laugh at.

My grandson chose to read this himself, it is very much his type of reading matter. He was only a few pages in before he said that we had to read it together as it was so much fun ! Quirky and hilarious it is indeed.

This book was very much enjoyed!! A really well written fun book. Full of amazing characters and a truly brilliant story. Cannot wait to read more !!

The siblings and Millicent Quibb, and the idea this book is built on (learning mad science) are amazing.
I loved the accompanying illustrations, since they serve an important purpose and complement the book.
The plot, characterisation, themes, mood and the concept are all 4.5 to 5 stars.
Unexpectedly from me, I did not love the humour and the writing style as much as I think I would, because I like McKinnon’s sense of humour and the writing in Lemony Snickets. That aspect is very subjective and it did not take away more than a star rating in my experience. I can see the humour in this book being enjoyed by many.